APPENDIX 1: DESCRIPTION OF THE FIVE SKILL LEVELS

Prose literacy, document literacy and numeracy skills were measured on numerical scales in ALL. People at different levels of skill, according to these measures, can be grouped into five broad levels, where level 1 represents the lowest level of skill and level 5 represents the highest.

• Level 1 (Scores 0-225): Tasks at this level require the ability to read simple documents, accomplish literal information-matching with no distractions and perform simple one-step calculations.
• Level 2 (Scores 226-275): This level includes tasks that demand the capacity to search a document and filter out some simple distracting information, achieve low-level inferences and execute one- or two-step calculations and estimations.
• Level 3 (Scores 276-325): Typical tasks at level 3 involve more complex information-filtering, sometimes requiring inferences and the facility to manipulate mathematical symbols, perhaps in several stages.
• Level 4 (Scores 326-375): A level 4 task might demand the integration of information from a long passage, the use of more complex inferences and the completion of multiple-step calculations requiring some reasoning.
• Level 5 (Scores 376-500): Level 5 tasks incorporate the capability to make high-level inferences or syntheses, use specialised knowledge, filter out multiple distractors and understand and use abstract mathematical ideas with justification.

For further information on how literacy and numeracy skills were conceptualised and measured in the survey, see Satherley and Lawes (2007) and Statistics Canada and OECD (2005).